Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park

(Redirected from Boston Harbor Islands State Park) Group of islands in Boston, Massachusetts

Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park
View of Spectacle Island showing trails, visitor center, and pier from the island's north side.
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Location	Norfolk, Plymouth, and Suffolk counties, Massachusetts
Nearest city	Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°19′7″N 70°56′45″W / 42.31861°N 70.94583°W / 42.31861; -70.94583
Area	1,482 acres (6.00 km)
Established	November 12, 1996
Governing body	Boston Harbor Islands Partnership which includes the National Park Service together with other federal, state, city, and nonprofit agencies.
Website	Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park is a combination national recreation area and state park situated among the islands of Boston Harbor. The park is made up of 34 islands and peninsulas and is managed by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. Twenty-one of the islands are also included in the Boston Harbor Islands Archeological District.

The park is significant for a wide range of natural and cultural resources, including three national historic landmarks, unique geological features, archaeological resources resulting from thousands of years of occupation of the islands by indigenous people of Massachusetts, and complex natural communities.

Attractions include hiking trails, beaches, the Civil War-era Fort Warren, and Boston Light, the oldest lighthouse station in the United States. Georges Island and Spectacle Island are served seasonally by ferries to and from Boston, and Peddocks Island is served by a ferry from Hingham.

List of islands and peninsulas

The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is made up of islands and peninsulas on and around Boston Harbor. These include:

Bumpkin Island (Hingham)
Button Island (Hingham)
Calf Island (Boston)
Deer Island (Boston)
Gallops Island (Boston)
Georges Island (Boston)
Grape Island (Weymouth)
The Graves (Boston)
Great Brewster Island (Boston)
Green Island (Boston)
Hangman Island (Quincy)
Langlee Island (Hingham)
Little Brewster Island (Boston)
Little Calf Island (Boston)
Long Island (Boston)
Lovells Island (Boston)
Middle Brewster Island (Boston)
Moon Island (Quincy)
Nixes Mate (Boston)
Nut Island (Quincy)
Outer Brewster Island (Boston)
Peddocks Island (Hull)
Raccoon Island (Quincy)
Ragged Island (Hingham)
Rainsford Island (Boston)
Sarah Island (Hingham)
Shag Rocks (Boston)
Sheep Island (Weymouth)
Slate Island (Weymouth)
Snake Island (Winthrop)
Spectacle Island (Boston)
Cathleen Stone Island, formerly known as Thompson Island (Boston)
Webb Memorial Park (Weymouth)
World's End (Hingham)

Though they are located in Boston Harbor, neither Castle Island nor Spinnaker Island belong to Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. Other former islands (Apple Island, Governors Island and Noddle's Island) were obliterated by the formation of East Boston and the expansion of Logan International Airport before the creation of the national recreation area.

History

Indigenous history

The islands have been places of significance to indigenous Native Americans for many thousands of years. Extensive archaeological evidence of indigenous activity in the area motivated the designation of 21 islands in an archaeological district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Indigenous tribes connected with the Boston Harbor Islands include the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the Nipmuc Nation, and the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

People began using various sites among the islands on a seasonal basis starting in the Middle Archaic period and intensified this occupation throughout the Late Archaic and Woodland periods. The islands’ rich variety of resources, including shellfish, migratory birds, nut-bearing trees, fish, seals, and mammals like deer and raccoon, made them ideal places for temporary settlements. Prehistoric people also practiced controlled burning, woodcutting, and plant collecting, using traditional subsistence methods that made minimal impacts on natural resources. Beyond subsistence, the islands have also served as sites for ceremony and burial grounds.

During King Philip's War, English colonists distrusted indigenous people, even those that had converted to Christianity and moved to “praying towns.” Colonists forcefully removed hundreds of Native American people, mostly women and children, from their homes in these towns (along with non-Christian Native Americans) and placed them in internment camps on Deer Island, Long Island, Peddocks Island, and Great Brewster Island. With inadequate shelter and food, about half of them died due to starvation or exposure while others were sold into enslavement in the West Indies. Women and children made up the majority of people interned on Deer Island. Today, descendants of the Tribal Nations involved in King Philip's War meet yearly on Deer Island to commemorate their ancestors’ suffering.

Post-colonization

With the arrival of European colonists came heavy use of the islands. They became hubs for resource extraction, coastal defense, industry, and maritime navigation, amid other activities.

The islands’ proximity to Boston, a major port city, has made them strategic locations for coastal defense facilities, and many of the islands saw activity during the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and the two world wars. Many of the harbor's structures that are associated with military history still stand today, including Fort Warren.

Since the 17th century the islands have been locations for many institutions, including quarantine hospitals, almshouses, reform schools, military prisons, and internment facilities. Businesses and recreation facilities, from resorts to waste processing plants, were also operated on several islands.

Several navigation aids of historic significance, including Boston Light, are also located in the park. The park boundaries also include sites of former lighthouses and range lights that are no longer standing, some of which have been replaced by modern structures.

National Register of Historic Places

The park is home to six sites that have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including three National Historic Landmarks. These also include mainland access points, such as Long Wharf, that were named in the park's establishing legislation.

National Historic Landmarks

Boston Light
Fort Warren (Massachusetts)
Long Wharf (Boston) and Custom House Block

Ecology

The park contains an extensive array of habitats. Among the park's 35+ miles of coasts and shoreline are intertidal and subtidal zones, rocky beaches, and coastal bluffs. Forests, grassy meadows, salt marshes, and other habitats can be found on some islands.

These marine and terrestrial habitats are homes to many different species of animal. Land animals include coyote, common raccoon, and white-tailed deer. More than 200 species of bird have been documented on the islands. Humpback, fin, minke, and North Atlantic right whales are occasional visitors to the harbor along with other marine mammals like porpoises and dolphins. The islands are rich with mollusks, including many species of mussel, snail, clam, oyster, and more. Marine arthropods like crab and lobster can be found here as well as many terrestrial arthropods, such as insects and arachnids.

Plant life on the islands is also extensive, with native, non-native, and invasive species present depending on the history of the island in question. Native trees include eastern cottonwood, quaking aspen, northern red oak, bitternut hickory, and sassafras, among many others. Herbaceous plants and shrubs inhabit many of the islands’ meadows, forests, and coasts.

Various species of protist and fungus have also been documented on the islands.

Because of the park's abundance of healthy habitat for shorebirds, the park was designated a Massachusetts Important Bird Area. The park surveys bird species as indicators for the ecological health of the park.

Six species in the park are listed through the Massachusetts Natural Heritage Program. These include the following bird species: barn owl, common tern, least tern, Northern harrier; and the plant species sea beach dock and American sea blite.

Management

The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is managed by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership, a statutory body established as a federal operating committee by the park enabling legislation. The partnership consists of individual members who represent a range of federal, state, city, and nonprofit agencies, including:

National Park Service
U.S. Coast Guard
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
Massachusetts Port Authority
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
City of Boston
City of Boston Planning Department
Boston Harbor Now
Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound Education Center
The Trustees of Reservations
Boston Harbor Islands Advisory Council

Apart from the representative for the Coast Guard, who is appointed by the Secretary of Homeland Security, all the members of the partnership are appointed by the Secretary of the Interior after consultation with the appropriate agency or other body.

In practice, day-to-day management of each individual island or other site is the responsibility of one of the partner agencies or other bodies. The partnership provides a consistency and coordination across the whole park.

Access

Boston Harbor City Cruises offers ferry service from Long Wharf to Georges and Spectacle Islands. Ferry service from Hingham to Peddocks Island is also available.

Deer Island, Nut Island, Worlds End, and Webb Memorial are accessible by road from the mainland. Moon Island and Long Island are closed to the public.

In popular culture

Bostonian Dennis Lehane drew inspiration from the harbor islands when writing his novel Shutter Island, citing a childhood visit to Long Island. The harbor islands are also featured in the film adaptation, as portions of the movie were shot at Peddocks Island.

Spectacle Island is featured in Fallout 4 as an explorable location and settlement.

References

"Listing of acreage – December 31, 2011" (XLSX). Land Resource Division, National Park Service. Retrieved December 16, 2012. (National Park Service Acreage Reports)
"Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area". June 27, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
"World's End (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
^ "Boston Harbor Islands: A Partnership Park". Boston Harbor Islands. March 19, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
"National Historic Landmark nomination for Boston Light". National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 14, 2006. Retrieved June 18, 2006.
^ "Ferry Schedule". Boston Harbor Islands. Archived from the original on July 24, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
US Geological Survey 7.5 minute series topographic map "Hull" 1971
"Island Facts". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. October 30, 2023. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
Boston Harbor Islands General Management Plan (PDF). Boston, Massachusetts: National Park Service. 2002. pp. ii.
^ "Indigenous History and Ways of Knowing". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. December 20, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
Cultural Landscape Report, Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park (PDF). Vol. 1: Historical Overview. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 23–24.
Cultural Landscape Report, Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park (PDF). Vol. I: Historical Overview. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 122–123.
"Deer Island". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. November 2, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
Cultural Landscape Report, Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park (PDF). Vol. I: Historical Overview. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 109–110.
Cultural Landscape Report, Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park (PDF). Vol. I: Historical Overview. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 156.
"Spectacle Island". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. September 19, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
Cultural Landscape Report, Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park (PDF). Vol. I: Historical Overview. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 199.
"Non-extant Navigational Aids". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. February 26, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
Cultural Landscape Report, Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park (PDF). Vol. I: Historical Overview. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 3–4.
"Coasts & Shorelines". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. November 2, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
"Birds". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. August 19, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
^ "Animals". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. November 23, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
"Observations, Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area". iNaturalist. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
"Plants". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. November 3, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
"Observations, Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area". iNaturalist. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
"Bird Monitoring". Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. August 19, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
"Boston Harbor Islands Partnership - Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
"Islands Partnership - Governance". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. Archived from the original on October 5, 2006. Retrieved October 6, 2006.
"Islands Partnership - Membership". Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. Archived from the original on August 30, 2006. Retrieved October 6, 2006.
"Public Law 104-33, 110 Stat. 4093 Sec. 1029. Boston Harbor Islands Recreation Area". Retrieved October 6, 2006.
"Boston Harbor Islands - General Management Plan" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved October 19, 2006.
Service, Ed Symkus/GateHouse News. "Real local flavor on display in 'Shutter Island'". Wicked Local. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
"Island Histories that Inspired "Shutter Island"". National Park Service. Retrieved October 9, 2024.

External links

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
Boston Harbor Islands Visitor Guide
Boston Harbor resources site
NOAA Soundings Map of Boston Harbor
Island Alliance (Boston Harbor)
Boston Harbor Islands - Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR).
The Boston Harbor Association resources
Boston Harbor Islands travel guide from Wikivoyage
Volunteers and Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands Inc. records, 1770-2011, University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston
Sean M. Fisher (2015), Guide to Related Archival Collections Outside of the DCR Archives Pertaining to the Metropolitan Parks System, the Metropolitan Water Works System, and the State Forests and Parks System, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Conservation and Recreation, OCLC 971134548, Boston Harbor Islands

v t e Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston
Coastal reservations	Belle Isle Marsh Boston Harbor Islands Castle Island Dorchester Shores Fort Revere Lynn Shore Nahant Beach Nantasket Beach Quincy Shore Revere Beach Rumney Marsh Webb Memorial Weymouth Back River
River reservations	Alewife Brook Charles River Chestnut Hill Cutler Elm Bank Hemlock Gorge Mystic River Neponset River Pope John Paul II Squantum Point Park Upper Charles River
Woodland reservations	Beaver Brook Blue Hills Breakheart Hammond Pond Middlesex Fells Quincy Quarries Southwest Corridor Stony Brook Wilson Mountain
Heritage state parks	Lynn Roxbury
Parkways and roads	Alewife Brook Arborway Blue Hills Blue Hills Reservation Charles River Reservation Day Boulevard Fellsway Fellsway East Fellsway West Fenway Fresh Pond Furnace Brook Hamond Pond Hull Shore Drive Jamaicaway Lynn Fells Lynnway Memorial Drive Morrissey Boulevard Mystic Valley Nahant Beach Boulevard Nantasket Avenue Park Drive Quincy Shore Drive Revere Beach Riverway Soldiers Field Road Stony Brook Storrow Drive Truman VFW West Roxbury Winthrop Winthrop Shore Drive
Department of Conservation and Recreation Greater Boston List of Massachusetts State Parks

Protected areas of Massachusetts

Federal

National Historical Parks	Adams Blackstone River Valley Boston Lowell Minute Man New Bedford Whaling
National Historic Sites	Boston African American Frederick Law Olmsted John Fitzgerald Kennedy Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters Salem Maritime Saugus Iron Works Springfield Armory
Other National Park Service units	Appalachian National Scenic Trail Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area Cape Cod National Seashore
National Wildlife Refuges	Assabet River Great Meadows Mashpee Massasoit Monomoy Nantucket Nomans Land Oxbow Parker River Silvio O. Conte Thacher Island
Wild and Scenic Rivers	Assabet Concord Sudbury Taunton Westfield
Other protected areas	Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve West Hill Dam (USACE)

State parks

Parks	Alewife Brook Ames Nowell Ashland Bash Bish Falls Blackstone River and Canal Heritage Borderland Boston Harbor Islands Bradley Palmer C. M. Gardner Callahan Castle Island State Park Chicopee Memorial City Square Clarksburg Cochituate Connecticut River Greenway Demarest Lloyd Dighton Rock Dunn Ellisville Harbor Fall River Heritage Gardner Heritage Governor Thomas Dudley Great Brook Farm Greycourt Halibut Point Hampton Ponds Holyoke Heritage Hopkinton Lake Lorraine Lake Wyola Lawrence Heritage Lowell Heritage Lynn Heritage Massasoit Maudslay Moore Mount Holyoke Range Natural Bridge Nickerson Pearl Hill Pilgrim Quinsigamond Robinson Roxbury Heritage Rutland Skinner South Cape Beach Wahconah Falls Webb Memorial Wells Western Gateway Heritage Whitehall Wompatuck
Reservations	Beaver Brook Belle Isle Marsh Blue Hills Breakheart Charles River Chestnut Hill Cutler Dorchester Shores Elm Bank Fort Phoenix Hammond Pond Hemlock Gorge Horseneck Beach Jug End Lynn Shore Middlesex Fells Mount Everett Mount Greylock Mount Sugarloaf Mount Tom Myles Standish Mystic River Nahant Beach Nantasket Beach Nasketucket Bay Neponset River Pope John Paul II Purgatory Chasm Quincy Quarries Quincy Shore Revere Beach Rumney Marsh Salisbury Beach Sandy Point Scusset Beach Stony Brook Upper Charles River Wachusett Mountain Walden Pond West Island Weymouth Wilson Mountain
Other	Appalachian Trail Ashuwillticook Rail Trail Cape Cod Rail Trail Fort Revere Lake Dennison Recreation Area Lower Neponset River Trail Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside Nashua River Rail Trail Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail Quabbin Reservoir Southwest Corridor Park Squantum Point Park Streeter Point Recreation Area Sudbury Reservoir Wachusett Reservoir Ware River Watershed Area

State forests

Wildlife management areas

Wildlife
management areas

Wildlife
sanctuaries

The Nature Conservancy
Black Pond Bog Boat Meadow Francis Newhall Woods Grassy Pond Greene Swamp Halfway Pond Island Hawley Bog Hockomock Swamp Hoft Farm Homer-Watcha Katama Plains McElwain-Olsen Miacomet Moors Reed Brook Roger and Virginia Drury Sandy Neck David H. Smith Preserve and Fire Trail Stacy Mountain Tatkon

Trustees of Reservations

Audubon Society wildlife sanctuaries

Other
Concord Land Conservation Trust Harvard Forest Lincoln Land Conservation Trust Lloyd Center for the Environment Lynn Woods Reservation Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary Old Harbor Wildlife Refuge

Category
Boston
Emerald Necklace
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Commons

v t e Parks in Boston
Parks	Arnold Arboretum Back Bay Fens Belle Isle Marsh Reservation Billings Field Boston Common Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area Boston National Historical Park Bremen Street Park Cardinal Cushing Memorial Park Castle Island Charles River Esplanade Charles River Reservation Charlestown Naval Shipyard Park Charlestown Veterans Memorial Park Chestnut Hill Reservation Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park City Square Park Commonwealth Avenue Dorchester Park Dorchester Shores Reservation Emerald Necklace Forsyth Park Fort Independence Fort Warren Franklin Park Franklin Park Zoo Galvin Memorial Park Harambee Park Harriet Tubman Park Jamaica Pond John Harvard Mall Kevin W. Fitzgerald Park Langone Park Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection Mary Ellen Welch Greenway Millennium Park Nashua Street Park Neponset River Reservation North End Parks North Point Park Olmsted Park Paul Revere Park Piers Park Boston Public Garden Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Roxbury Heritage State Park Roxbury High Fort Southwest Corridor Park Stony Brook Reservation Temple Street Park Thompson Square Upper Charles River Reservation Webb Memorial State Park Winthrop Square

Parks in Boston

Parks

v t e National recreation areas of the United States
National Park Service	Amistad Bighorn Canyon Boston Harbor Islands Chattahoochee River Chickasaw Curecanti Delaware Water Gap Gateway Gauley River Glen Canyon Golden Gate Lake Chelan Lake Mead Lake Meredith Lake Roosevelt Ross Lake Santa Monica Mountains Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity
U.S. Forest Service	Allegheny Arapaho Ed Jenkins Flaming Gorge Grand Island Hells Canyon Jemez Land Between The Lakes Moosalamoo Mount Baker Mount Hood Mount Rogers Oregon Dunes Pine Ridge Rattlesnake Robert T. Stafford White Rocks Sawtooth Smith River Spring Mountains Spruce Knob–Seneca Rocks Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity Winding Stair Mountain
Bureau of Land Management	White Mountains

U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Topics

Lists by county

Lists by city

Barnstable County	Barnstable Harwich
Bristol County	Fall River New Bedford Taunton
Essex County	Andover Gloucester Ipswich Lawrence Lynn Methuen Salem
Hampden County	Springfield
Middlesex County	Arlington Cambridge Concord Framingham Lexington Lowell Marlborough Medford Newton Reading Sherborn Somerville Stoneham Wakefield Waltham Weston Winchester
Norfolk County	Brookline Milton Quincy
Suffolk County	Boston northern southern
Worcester County	Southbridge Uxbridge Worcester eastern northwestern southwestern

Other lists

v t e Islands in Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
Boston	Apple Calf Castle Deer Gallops Georges Governors The Graves Great Brewster Green Little Brewster Little Calf Long Lovells Middle Brewster Nixes Mate Noddle's Outer Brewster Rainsford Shag Rocks Spectacle Thompson
Hingham	Bumpkin Button Langlee Ragged Sarah
Hull	Peddocks Spinnaker
Quincy	Hangman Moon Nut Raccoon
Weymouth	Grape Sheep Slate
Winthrop	Snake
Italics indicate former islands

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